The conventional technology includes a control device for an internal combustion engine that controls a valve timing during a fuel-cut operation as disclosed, for example, in Patent Literature 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-79517). According to the conventional technology, if it is predicted that a catalyst will enter a supercooled state during a fuel-cut operation, an opening timing or a closing timing of an exhaust valve is controlled to an advance side. As a result, according to the conventional technology, heat around a combustion chamber is efficiently transferred to air (fresh air) that flows into a cylinder during a fuel-cut operation, and a decrease in the catalyst temperature is suppressed by increasing the temperature of the fresh air.
The applicants are aware of the following literature, which includes the above described literature, as literature related to the present invention.